8: The truth about why your mind is racing (sleep anxiety) and how to calm it so you can sleep

Episode Transcript

Welcome to the why you can't sleep podcast. If you struggle to sleep and you've tried what seems like everything, you are in the right place. There are imbalances in your body that are keeping you awake, and you're going to learn what they are in this show. Now, let's kick off this episode with an inspiring success story from one of my clients who has significantly improved their sleep by correcting the underlying health issues that were causing their insomnia.

"And I just, I roll over in bed and I just say to Anne, I cannot tell you what an amazing feeling it is to be able to fall asleep pretty quickly at night and then fall back asleep in the middle of the night and wake up actually feeling rested. I don't remember the last time I woke up feeling really rested and not being on some form of medication."

Hi, everyone. I hope you're having a good week so far. I'm really excited to share with you why your mind races at night. So if your monkey mind is keeping you awake at night, if your mind racing is keeping you from falling asleep or you're waking up, I want you to know that it's not your fault. And this might seem like a mental problem, but it's actually not all in your head. There are real reasons in your body that are causing this and keeping you from being able to control it. So this is definitely not your fault that you can't control your mind. So let's get into these reasons for different reasons.

The first reason is cortisol. So you have probably heard me talk about this before. If you have been in this group for a while. Cortisol is a very important hormone that wakes you up in the morning and keeps you alert throughout the day. It's also one of the main hormones in our fight or fly stress response. So when we're stressed all the time, your body constantly makes cortisol to deal with that stress. And that's going to increase your heart rate, your blood pressure, your body temperature. It raises your blood sugar to give you energy, and it's going to heighten your memory and concentration so that you can make quick decisions for survival.

Now, the funny thing is our brains don't know the difference between needing to survive something, between being chased by a bear, for example, or being too busy and overwhelmed all the time, or any other stress that might be happening in your life. And so cortisol prepares us to run from or fight something, even if we don't need to actually survive in that moment. And our bodies also release cortisol if there are stressors in the body that you don't even know about. So if you have high cortisol at bedtime, it's going to keep you from being able to sleep and can cause your mind to race. Even if you weren't stressed about anything in particular, if you have high cortisol in the middle of the night, it's going to wake you up with racing thoughts. Maybe your heart's beating fast, but it's not because you can't control your mind. And the most common reasons for high cortisol at night are going to be an unhealthy gut, a congested liver, your liver isn't happy, and low blood sugar. So those things can cause high cortisol at night and cause your mind to race.

Now, if you've been chronically stressed for a long time, then your body isn't going to be able to make enough cortisol to deal with that stress. And when that happens, your body resorts to adrenaline instead, which that is going to cause even more amplified stress response. Right? More heart pounding and those uncontrollable racing thoughts. Now, the second reason your mind is racing could be from hormone imbalance. So this is for both men and women, and I'm going to give some examples here. So, low estrogen can lead to depression, anxiety, mood swings and insomnia. High estrogen is associated with mood swings, irritability and sleep disturbances. Low testosterone can cause depression, anxiety, worry and fear.

I and low melatonin can also manifest as anxiety, depression, even bipolar disorder and insomnia. Isn't it crazy that our hormones can affect our mental state? As a functional health coach, I don't recommend just supplementing with hormones when they're out of balance. I want to know why they're out of balance. And the most common reason is because cortisol. Your body's been constantly making cortisol to deal with stress. It's going to use all of its resources to make cortisol and take those resources away from making sex hormones. Your body always prioritizes survival over reproduction. And low hormones that can cause mental swings are the result of long term stress.

My goal is always to help people eliminate as many stressors as possible so that your body has the resources that needs to make sex hormones instead of focusing on making cortisol all the time. And then when your hormones are imbalanced, you'll feel balanced and calm. Now, the third cause of a racing mind has to do with your gut. So the good bacteria in your gut should be making most of your neurotransmitters. Studies show that 90% of neurotransmitters, like serotonin, dopamine, gaba and even melatonin, are made in the gut by the bacteria in your gut. And so if you don't have enough good bacteria, then you're not going to have all the transmitters you need to feel calm, relaxed and sleepy. So serotonin, for example, is our happy and joyful neurotransmitter, and this helps us fall into a deep, restful sleep. Now, signs of serotonin deficiency are going to be depression, lack of enjoyment, PM's, inner rage, paranoia and poor sleep.

And then GabA is our anti anxiety hormone. So that's going to be another neurotransmitter that affects sleep. And if you're deficient in Gaba, you're going to find it hard to turn off your mind, which is going to lead to racing thoughts and anxiety. And the most common GABA issues are anxiety, nervousness and insomnia. You can see you need these important neurotransmitters to have a calm mind. Now, if you have a pathogen in your gut, and by that I mean a parasite, a bacteria like H. Pylori, or other bad bacteria or yeast like candida, those critters create a lot of inflammation. And so your body's going to release cortisol to deal with that inflammation, because it's an anti inflammatory hormone.

These creatures are most active at night, and so they can cause you to wake up with your mind racing, even if you aren't stressed about anything in particular. Now, the fourth reason your mind is racing could be from mineral imbalances and heavy metals. So, different mineral imbalances can cause ruminating thoughts. And that's why I use a hair tissue mineral analysis test to see my clients mineral patterns, so I know what's out of balance. The most common pattern I see is something called slow oxidation. And in this pattern, calcium and magnesium are higher than sodium and potassium, which can lead to insomnia, as well as those overactive thoughts. And the opposite pattern, called fast oxidation, is when there's too much sodium and potassium, and then calcium, magnesium are burnt through really quickly and you become deficient. Now, this pattern can cause anxiety and type a personality traits, as well as a racing mind.

Now, copper toxicity and heavy metals can also manifest with the symptoms of anxiety, irritability, insomnia and repetitive thinking. So, as you can see, your mind is erasing because you aren't meditating enough or because you don't know how to control your brain. Physical imbalances are causing these mental symptoms, and therapy can give you great tools to try to manage anxious thoughts, but it's not going to help you get to the root of why this is happening. The only way to calm your racing mind without medication is to find out what's causing it and correct it. This is fixable, and this is what I can help you with. All right, everyone, thanks for listening. Have a great day.

To help you figure out what could be causing your insomnia, I created a checklist to go with this podcast series. For each category I talk about in the episodes such as inflammation and hormone balance and gut health, you can mark off what symptoms you have for each one. The more symptoms you check off in each category, the more likely that imbalance is contributing to your sleep issues. Get a copy of the checklist today by going to https://thesleepdetective.com/checklist.

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